


Mind Hovel

by gypsyjackrabbit



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen, Mind Palace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-19
Updated: 2013-06-19
Packaged: 2017-12-15 10:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/848694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gypsyjackrabbit/pseuds/gypsyjackrabbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short foray into John Watson in observation of his flatmate-the devastatingly intelligent Sherlock Holmes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mind Hovel

Burton Rascoe once said, "What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out the window."  John supposed that was a bit like sharing a flat with Sherlock Holmes.  He was staring out the cab window now, the shining wet city of London reflected in the lens of his pale eyes.  Every so often they would flick left or right, not tracking any object on their path, but instead leading him down the halls of his 'mind palace.'

It was a little disconcerting at first, to watch him disappear while physically present, but by now John knew it was better for Sherlock to wander the halls of his cerebral estate, than to slide into the near comatose trance that followed a case gone awry.  He wondered where that place was- a deserted moor perhaps?  Post apocalyptic plagueland?  Had he locked himself in the palace's hall closet beside a disfunctional hoover?  Surely the mind palace had closets.

If what Sherlock had was a mind palace, John supposed his own mental domain was more akin to a 'mind cottage.'  He glanced at his flatmate's furrowed brow and amended to 'mind hovel.' 

It was trying sometimes to believe that Sherlock felt things the way the rest of humanity did.  He definitely didn't.  Some even had trouble believing he felt things at all.  John had watched him too carefully to believe this.  There was a tightness of the jaw, a single-minded intensity that suggested Sherlock cared a great deal, but he was not about to let that dull his perception of reality.

"Is there a reason you have been staring at me for the last three kilometers or am I to believe your mind is as vacant as your expression suggests?"  Sherlock's head never moved, and his eyes remained trained out the window.

John cleared his throat a little to loudly, "Just visiting the old mind palace.  Tough case, this one."  There were suddenly not enough places to look that were not Sherlock's face.

"Let's not get carried away, 'mind shack' will do."  He was not smiling, but his voice contained trace amounts of laughter.

"You've figured it out, haven't you?  The case."  John said.

"Yes."

"Well there was no need to be an ass about it."

Sherlock barked out a laugh and John rubbed his face with his palms.  "I'll call Lestrade."

**Author's Note:**

> I have never written anything other than original fiction before, so I hope I haven't embarrassed myself with this toe-dip of a character study in Sherlock fanfiction. Thank you for reading! Comments and criticisms welcome!


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